1421-1423 Chinese Treasure Fleets

If this were a print book, I would have to cry, ‘Hold the Presses.’ But it’s not. It is a digital book and I can make changes, which I must do. No sooner had I formally announced the publication of this web book to my friends and relatives than my third cousin Linda Cowan wrote to me and asked if I had heard of the Chinese treasure fleets. Heard of them yes, as briefly mentioned in this book. But did I know they colonized America eighty years before Columbus? No clue.

I have been researching the history of the exploration of New England for thirty years. I came across nothing about those fleets reaching America. But they did, and the result of their visits between 1421 and 1423 is mind boggling.

I am only half way through reading Gavin Menzies amazing book, 1421: The Year China Discovered America(1). My brain is about to explode, and I will need to revise many things in this book. However, I am extremely excited, because he has answered so many of my questions about the Age of Discovery. In many cases he refers to maps I have been studying, too. I will get back to this article as soon as I finish. Meanwhile, as you continue on with the story about the Portuguese and Spanish, remember that the Portuguese were privy to information from the Chinese who beat them to the punch crossing the Ocean Sea.